fter more than two months at sea, the Pilgrims aboard the storm-tossed Mayflower finally spied the New England coastline as dawn broke on November 9, 1620. Although William Bradford reported that the Pilgrims were full of joy after enduring a “long beating at sea,” his fellow passengers also knew that that the Atlantic Ocean’s fierce storms had driven them more than 220 miles northeast of their intended destination—the mouth of the Hudson River. As Mayflower master Christopher Jones attempted to sail south toward the Hudson River along the uncharted coast of Cape Cod, however, the ship encountered blustery headwinds and “fell amongst dangerous shoals and roaring breakers.” With supplies running low and fears of a shipwreck running high, Jones turned back and found refuge in the harbor near present-day Provincetown Massachusetts, where the Pilgrims first made landfall on November 11. The following month, the Pilgrims crossed Cape Cod Bay and began to construct their permanent settlement in Plymouth.